Tagged: galoshins

Where we pick one or maybe several things to check out in Edinburgh during the month of August [disclaimer: in the event of tardiness or over-eagerness, don’t be fooled by the headline, it’s today cos we’re picking it today, rather than you should go today, but maybe you should go today…]

What else could possibly be our pick today? Yep, our bff’s 4eva at Armellodie Records begin their annual label jaunt with a show at Henry’s Cellar Bar in Edinburgh tonight, before pulling into Glasgow and Dundee for more shows later in the week, before returning to Edinburgh and Glasgow again in the coming weeks with a different line-up. Phew.

Tonight’s line up is eclectic yet as perfectly matched as the label itself with sets from Cuddly Shark, Galoshins, Super Adventure Club and Thirty Pounds of Bone, who will be backed by a band, of sorts. Tickets are £5 on the door and the entertainment starts sometime after 7:30pm.

point and with that sentiment so it is that we say farewell to Barmellodie at Bar Bloc (Friday June 17th). Whether or not the nights will resume at some point, who knows but it’s fair to say the last 6 months have provided us with some great live music and sketchy dj’ing by the resident disc jockeys. There have been too many highlights to pick only a few and I’m sure that list will grow with the final night’s action.

Heading the bill are Armellodie stalwarts Cuddly Shark fresh from writing and demo’ing new tracks, they played at our 1st birthday party and they really aren’t one to be missed. Joining Cuddly Shark will be Galoshins, Lady North and recent Armellodie signings Something Beginning With L (new album is quality, check it oot) who you will no doubt spot from afar as they will be travelling in this colourful creation.

As ever, the fun starts at around 10:30pm with bands and DJ’s, it’s Peenko playing Kid Canaveral this month, going on until around 3am. It’s free if you turn up early enough too!

The title says it all really, or maybe it doesn’t actually. If you scroll your mouse down you will see that the last time we posted,

it was still the month of March, and there was over a week left of that month. It’s not the case that we’ve been up to nothing mind you, life gets busy and sadly the things you love get pushed to the side a little bit. After all, it’s more important to be able to put sneakers on your kids’ feet right?!

When I say drought we’re talking strictly in a writing sense, getting the words into my keyboard so that they appear in wordpress and end up on the Elba blog. You see, this is a time issue, pure and simple. It’s not because there is a lack of things to write about, if I could pay myself a lovely salary I’d do it all day but needs must and off to work I go each day.

So here I am, finding time in my complete lack of time, to moan about not having the time to write. Kind of ironic, maybe I’ve just wasted a precious 200 words that could have been better spent giving a lot more attention to some of the things I’m sure I’ll go on to mention.

As I have said, there’s no lack at all of good things to write about. I’ve found an abundance of new things to listen to recently and I’ve also filled in a few gaps with old albums I’ve not ever had the chance or even inclination to listen to at the time. I found that I’m really liking the lo-fi/west coast (USA) type bands at the moment, y’know some of the bands who sounded like the kind of band my brother listened to in the early to mid nineties. Smith Westerns, Ringo Deathstarr, Girls (okay so this ones not just out but I’ve been listening to it for the last year), Lower Dens and have I rekindled my interest with Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Best Coast in anticipation of the former’s new album and latter’s gig at The Arches on the 27th of this month.

Talking of things I’m liking at the moment, I’ve received a couple of really great records in my emails recently that I really must mention.

The first EP in question here is The Whittling EP from Andrew Lindsay and The Coat Hooks. Chock full of jangly guitars and sing-a-long melodies it’s been the perfect listen for me on my way to the office in the morning. The Coat Hooks include, amongst others, Shambles Miller and Matthew of Elba favourites Loch Awe. If you fancy giving it a go, you can head over to their bandcamp where you can purchase either a digital copy of the album for £3 or a nicer wee package including badges, a note and some demos for a couple of quid more.

Knowing of my slight penchant for their music, Johnny Reb have sent me over their first album, or ‘debut exertions’ as they have put it. It was recorded in Portugal with Boz Boorer, him being Morrisey’s guitarist and that, and it will be released through their Bandcamp on April 18th. It really is rather excellent.

Also, if you’ve not yet picked up the Song, By Toad label sampler yet, you really should. It can be downloaded for free over here. My personal favourite is the Lach track. I’m looking forward to hearing that album when it comes out in July.

I’ve not just been hiding away listening to records though, I’ve been to a couple of cracking gigs by Deerhunter and Josh T.Pearson (Skinny Review Here) in the last couple of weeks and rather looking forward to seeing Marina Celeste and Best Coast over the next weeks.

Also coming up on the 21st this month, three days after the official release date, is the Le Reno Amps album launch at The Captain’s Rest. Not only are LRA playing, obviously, it’s a monstrous line-up completed by The Douglas Firs, Super Adventure Club and Galoshins. It will be awesomes!!!! You can stream or buy the album over here!

Anyways, we’ll be back again shortly with more stuff, hopefully in a more timeous manner giving a bit more focus to stuff.

Funny story, myself and Chris thought Alastair had an amp for a head first time we saw Deathpodal. It was a mixture of an unfortunate viewing position downstairs in the 13th Note and a couple of pints of Staropramen. Turns out on chatting to him, his head is most definitely not ‘amp-like’ and is perfectly human. Quirky point number two is that when I get an email from Alastair, gmail tells me that the email conversation is between me and Death, slightly disconcerting. All the above aside, it was a pleasure to catch up with him to ask him his ‘best of’s for this year and ask what he’ll be up to with Deathpodal, his other band Battery Face and his label Electropapknit over the next year.

Album of the Year – Er don’t know? Liars – Sisterworld… MIA’s new record… Grinderman 2… too many choices!

Best Gig –The Skinny show with Team Ghost was good, super busy, Aberdeen was a lot of fun with Min Diesel, but I’d probably go with supporting Islet just because we played pretty well and all the bands were amazing.

Best gig by someone else – Man this is a hard one, I liked so many shows this year, Mission of Burma at ATP, Les Savy Fav at Oran Mor, the Winning Sperm Party show at Audio Lounge, Mount Eerie, Trash Kit, Liars, Autechre… but overall being blown away, probably Don Vito at the Rock n Roll Circus.

Favourite New Bands –local wise Galoshins, the other band I’m in (Battery Face) are playing with them in December. Otherwise probably Male Bonding. I’ve also started listening to Zu again, which doesn’t count, but they rule.

Musical Memories of 2010 – 6 Music being saved, if that had gone it would have ruined one of the best opportunities alternative bands have for some represenation on the airwaves. Finding out USA Is A Monster had split last year, which sucked. Going to Retreat Festival (Edinburgh) smashed and losing all my memories.

Hopes / Plans for 2011 – plenty of Battery Face shows and perhaps a tour, a return of Deathpodal with completely new material, jamming with more people and releasing more compilations and other bands through Electropapknit.

Battery Face play the Elektropapknit compilation release party this Thursday (9th Dec) at the Winchester Club along with Galoshins, Min Diesel and Public Spaces and you can download, for free, the new compilation from Electropapknit who will have a download link here from around the 9th or 10th.